Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and her “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday.

Machado, one of Venezuela’s most prominent pro-democracy figures, has faced persecution and repeated threats under President Nicolás Maduro’s government. In the past year, she has been forced to live in hiding but has continued to coordinate opposition efforts inside the country.

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Nobel Committee said in its statement. “Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.”

The 56-year-old former lawmaker and longtime critic of Maduro was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election despite winning the opposition’s primary. Her disqualification drew condemnation from Western governments and human rights groups.

The Nobel Committee praised Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times,” crediting her for unifying Venezuela’s fragmented opposition for free and fair elections.

The Committee said Machado’s decision to remain in Venezuela despite threats to her has inspired millions of people.

“Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace,” the committee said in a statement.

“She embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard.”

The peace prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.